Obama on Immigration 2011: 'We Live in a Democracy,' I Cant 'Unilaterally' Change Law

On September 28, 2011, President Barack Obama participated in an “Open for Questions” roundtable with reporters from Yahoo!, MSN Latino, AOL Latino and HuffPost LatinoVoices.

A Obama told the reporters who pushed him on taking executive action on immigration reform “we live in a democracy.”

“This notion that somehow I can just change the laws unilaterally is not true,” he said. “The fact of the matter is there are laws on the books I have to enforce. And there is a great disservice done to the cause of getting the DREAM Act passed and comprehensive immigration reform passed by perpetuating the notion that somehow by myself I can just go and do these things.”

“We live in a democracy,” he added. “You have to pass bills through the Legislature, and then I can sign it. If all the attention is focused away from the legislative process, then that is going to lead to a constant dead end.”